The Packaging (Essential Requirements) (Amendment) Regulations 2013

• “packaging” means all products made of any materials of any nature to be used for the containment, protection, handling, delivery and presentation of goods, from raw materials to processed goods, from the producer to the user or the consumer, including non-returnable items used for the same purposes, but only where the products are—

  1. a

     sales packaging or primary packaging, that is to say packaging conceived so as to constitute a sales unit to the final user or consumer at the point of purchase;

  2. b

     grouped packaging or secondary packaging, that is to say packaging conceived so as to constitute at the point of purchase a grouping of a certain number of sales units whether the latter is sold as such to the final user or consumer or whether it serves only as a means to replenish the shelves at the point of sale, and which can be removed from the product without affecting its characteristics; or

  3. c

     transport packaging or tertiary packaging, that is to say packaging conceived so as to facilitate handling and transport of a number of sales units or grouped packagings in order to prevent physical handling and transport damage; for the purposes of these Regulations transport packaging does not include road, rail, ship and air containers;

  provided that–

  1. i

     items shall be considered to be packaging if they fulfil the above definition without prejudice to other functions which the packaging might also perform, unless the item is an integral part of a product and it is necessary to contain, support or preserve that product throughout its lifetime and all elements are intended to be used, consumed or disposed of together;

  2. ii

     items designed and intended to be filled at the point of sale and disposable items sold, filled or designed and intended to be filled at the point of sale shall be considered to be packaging provided they fulfil a packaging function;

  3. iii

     packaging components and ancillary elements integrated into packaging shall be considered to be part of the packaging into which they are integrated. Ancillary elements hung directly on, or attached to, a product and which perform a packaging function shall be considered to be packaging unless they are an integral part of that product and all elements are intended to be consumed or disposed of together.

• Schedule V lists the illustrative examples of packaging stated in the Annex of Commission Directive 2013/2/EU4 amending Annex 1 of the Directive;

SCHEDULE VILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES OF PACKAGING REFERRED TO IN THE PROVISO TO THE DEFINITION OF PACKAGING IN REGULATION 2(2)

Regulation 2(2)

Illustrative examples for criterion (i)—

• Packaging

  • Sweet boxes

  • Film overwrap around a CD case

  • Mailing pouches for catalogues and magazines (with a magazine inside)

  • Cake doilies sold with a cake

  • Rolls, tubes and cylinders around which flexible material (e.g. plastic film, aluminium, paper) is wound, except rolls, tubes and cylinders intended as parts of production machinery and not used to present a product as a sales unit

  • Flower pots intended to be used only for the selling and transporting of plants and not intended to stay with the plant throughout its life time

  • Glass bottles for injection solutions

  • CD spindles (sold with CDs, not intended to be used as storage)

  • Clothes hangers (sold with a clothing item)

  • Matchboxes

  • Sterile barrier systems (pouches, trays and materials necessary to preserve the sterility of the product)

  • Beverage system capsules (e.g. coffee, cacao, milk) which are left empty after use

  • Refillable steel cylinders used for various kinds of gas, excluding fire extinguishers

• Non-packaging

  • Flower pots intended to stay with the plant throughout its life time

  • Tool boxes

  • Tea bags

  • Wax layers around cheese

  • Sausage skins

  • Clothes hangers (sold separately)

  • Beverage system coffee capsules, coffee foil pouches, and filter paper coffee pods disposed together with the used coffee product

  • Cartridges for printers

  • CD, DVD and video cases (sold together with a CD, DVD or video inside)

  • CD spindles (sold empty, intended to be used as storage)

  • Soluble bags for detergents

  • Grave side lights (containers for candles)

  • Mechanical quern (integrated in a refillable recipient, e.g. refillable pepper mill)

Illustrative examples for criterion (ii)—

• Packaging, if designed and intended to be filled at the point of sale

  • Paper or plastic carrier bags

  • Disposable plates and cups

  • Cling film

  • Sandwich bags

  • Aluminium foil

  • Plastic foil for cleaned clothes in laundries

• Non-packaging

  • Stirrer

  • Disposable cutlery

  • Wrapping paper (sold separately)

  • Paper baking cases (sold empty)

  • Cake doilies sold without a cake

Illustrative examples for criterion (iii)—

• Packaging

  • Labels hung directly on or attached to a product

• Part of packaging

  • Mascara brush which forms part of the container closure

  • Sticky labels attached to another packaging item

  • Staples

  • Plastic sleeves

  • Device for measuring dosage which forms part of the container closure for detergents

  • Mechanical quern (integrated in a non-refillable recipient, filled with a product, e.g. pepper mill filled with pepper)

  • Non-packaging

  • Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.